This post originally appeared on the Popanth blog (no longer in operation) in 2014. A greatly expanded version of this article appears in my new book Silent but Deadly: The Underlying Cultural Patterns of Everyday Behaviour, where I delve more deeply into historical literature on farting, the theories of Norbert Elias (a shocking oversight in this piece!), Whoopi Goldberg, fart pranksters, and the rise of ‘fart bullying’.